


Shut Up (And Let Me Help You)

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [6]
Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: 5 Times, Fluff, M/M, relationship progression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23670214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: Five times Barret carries Cloud.Mild spoilers for FF7 Remake, FF7 and Advent Children.
Relationships: Cloud Strife/Barret Wallace
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 15
Kudos: 369





	Shut Up (And Let Me Help You)

**Author's Note:**

> So the first three could be set sometime in Midgar (though I was thinking of the Zolom for Cloud's wound in the third), the fourth is set after Advent Children, and the fifth is set after a time jump.

The merc was struggling, Barret could see it. Hell, he’d practically taken down all of their enemies all by his own damn self, of course he was struggling. Not that the fool would ever admit it. Or admit that he’d been having another one of those those episodes that’d been popping up with increasing frequency lately. The ones that always left the man pale and shaken, and reminded Barret a whole hell of a lot of the PTSD episodes he’d seen friends go through in his time. 

Barret frowned and continued on his way, taking only two more steps before realizing that no, fuck it, he _wasn’t_ going to be able to ignore the way that Spike was barely keeping to his feet while still keeping his conscious clear. The merc was going to collapse at any moment, and Barret was going to feel bad about it. Well, hell with that.

Taking the several long steps necessary to clear the distance between them, Barret swept Spike up in bridal before the merc could react to stop him. How’s that for the man’s supposedly superior reflexes, huh?

Not that that stopped the man from bitching. 

Right on cue, Cloud said flatly, “Barret. What the hell are you doing?” with a stubborn, warning look to his eyes like he was gearing up for another fight. 

Lucky that Barret had counted on him being a troublesome piece of work. “You’re slowing the rest of us down, and I want to get back to Marlene before she gets to bed.” He said, voice as even and non-argumentative as he could make it, considering the circumstances, “This is the easiest way for us to get back on time, so just be a good princess for once and enjoy the ride.”

…Okay, so maybe Barret wasn’t going to be able to resist poking at the man a _little_ bit and winding him up. He’d admit that it wasn’t very conductive to getting the man to not bitch the whole way home. But damned was it fun.

And at least it seemed to help him forget about that episode he’d had. 

***

Barret gazed in pure, absolute horror at the scene that was playing out before him.

Oh, hell no!

Cloud was **not** having a tea party with his perfect little angel. 

And he sure as hell wasn’t looking cute as fuck while doing it.

Swooping in, Barret snatched Cloud up out of his chair and into his arms before the man or Marlene had even realized he was there, taking several steps away to deposit Cloud in the doorway. 

Glaring at Cloud with what he hope was all the fierceness of a pissed off mother bear, Barret forced a stiff smile on his face as he pointed down the hall. 

“Okay, you’re not needed anymore now that _I’m_ here. Get.” He snapped. 

Cloud raised a single brow, somehow managing to pack a **world** of sass into that one simple gesture, but finally smirking and shaking his head as he turned to leave. 

Thank fuck he did. If he’d insisted on staying, Barret might have been forced to confront some things. Like how the bow that was still in the merc’s hair, one doubtlessly put there by his little angel, made him look almost adorable. 

Barret shook his head and turned resolutely back to his daughter. He had more important things to worry about right now, like apologizing to his little girl for interrupting her party and then taking his rightful place in the seat of honor. 

Anything else could be dealt with later. 

***

“Again?” Cloud said, somehow managing to sound sassy and unimpressed as hell even with a hole in his leg nearly the size of Barret’s forearm. 

Barret huffed back at him, only a little willing to play along, the rest of him too worried to put up with it, “You’ve got a hole in your leg that I might just be able to fit my hand into and I’m pretty sure that damn snake’s poisoned you. How about you save that sass for later.” 

Cloud snorted, the sound almost playful. Was the man delirious? Was he so far gone that he wasn’t feeling any pain? The way that his eyes were pinched and the way he was stiff and still in Barret’s arms made him think that he definitely was still feeling pain. Maybe it was just that this was far from the worse pain he’d ever felt. 

Barret pushed away **that** unpleasant thought forcefully. He’d really rather not dwell on it. Lest he do something monumentally stupid, like abandon his mission to go try to find that fucking vile ass Hojo guy to help the man experience what pain felt like. Firsthand. 

“Hey.” Cloud’s voice drew his attention back to the present, “I know you like to play knight in shining armor to all us swooning damsels, but it’ll be fine. I heal fast- it’ll be gone before you know it.”

Yeah, and how many other wounds had this man gone through that had 'healed fast'? 

Barret could either ask that and doubtlessly hate the answer he got, or he could let him change the subject before his answers provoked a seething rage in Barret for all the shit the man in his arms had been put through. He chose the subject change. 

“Well, long as you can acknowledge that you’re a swooning little princess, I guess you’ll be fine. Might have even gotten some sense knocked into you.” He huffed with his best attempt at going back to their usual banter. 

But despite his apparent nonchalance, he clutched Cloud just that much closer to himself, as if trying to protect him from horrors long since past. 

***

Cloud pulled himself from the pool where the damn fool had resurrected himself, and Barret was just musing over the fact that Cloud had better damn well know that he and Barret were definitely going to have a long ass talk about communication and the fool taking on things all by himself later, when Cloud took one step forward… and then began to go down.

Barret was closest one to him, and almost as if it had been rehearsed, Barret swooped down and put one arm under his knees and the other behind his shoulder and jerked Cloud into his arms and against his chest. 

And hell, why wouldn't it be rehearsed by now? How many times had he had Cloud in this same position?

In his arms in a bridal carry after the damn wannabe martyr had done something fundamentally stupid and gotten himself hurt? 

More times than Barret had bothered keeping track of, that was for sure. 

If he were that sort of man, he’d probably think it was kind of poetic that one of Spike’s first actions after being reborn would be to wind up back in his arms like this.

As it stood, he wasn’t that sort of man, and he was mostly still just really pissed over Cloud having needed to be reborn in the first place. 

For his own part, Cloud at least seemed to realize he was in trouble if the almost hesitant way he was peering up at him was any indication. 

Barret hoped that complacency lasted for a bit, because you bet your ass that Barret was still going to get that talk, including a nice, long yell at him later, and it’d all just go better if Cloud didn’t try to argue back at him during it. 

***

Cloud crossed his arms and glared at him fiercely. It’d almost be convincing, if his lips would stop trying to twitch upward. 

“No.” Cloud said, and he almost sounded firm about it. 

Barret crossed his own arms over his chest in a best attempt at intimidation, but he probably wasn’t managing to pull off a convincing act, with the way he was grinning himself. 

He hadn’t stopped smiling from ear to ear since the very beginning of the ceremony. 

“It’s Nibelheim tradition, ain’t it? At least according to Tifa, it was.” He pointed out. 

Cloud was still glaring, but his mouth had lost its battle, and he just looked odd, glaring at him while smiling that warmly.

“And who says I shouldn’t be the one to carry you?” Cloud asked pointedly. 

Barret laughed out loud, so filled with joy that he was going to be able to argue (and laugh, and live, and love) with this man for the rest of his life, saying merrily, “You been paying attention any of these last few years, Spike? That’s not how it works. I carry your fool ass when you need me to save you. Not the other way around. I’m not about to let our new life together start any other way, so get that idea out of your head.” 

It was clear that Cloud wasn’t done with being stubborn yet, opening his mouth to begin to say, “All the more reason for me to-“

Barret interrupted him by swooping Cloud up and into his arms. 

And proceeding to carry him over the threshold.

**Author's Note:**

> So I came really close to switching it up between them in the last part, because Barret deserves to be carried as much as Cloud does, but my inner Barret muse rose up in protest. Cloud gets to be the hero a good 99.9% of the time, and I love that he’s a hero. But here I wanted to make it clear that while Cloud is a hero, Barret is the one that saves him when he needs it (especially in this fic), and taking that away from Barret felt wrong. (And I do know that really, Cloud’s friends as a whole are the ones to save him, but this fic was especially focused on Barret, so here he gets the lion’s share of the credit.) Also, I know this was just a five times fic, but I like to think this was just showing five of the many times Barret carried Cloud, so that's what I was referencing in some of Barret's inner commentary. 
> 
> Hope y’all enjoyed!


End file.
